


A Princess in New Mexico

by SirTeateiMoonlight



Category: Team Fortress 2, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Gen, Xenoblade Chronicles Spoilers, cp_dustbowl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-08-15 19:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8069956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirTeateiMoonlight/pseuds/SirTeateiMoonlight
Summary: A teleporter accident sends Melia to the American Badlands, where the BLU team is about to launch an attack against a six-point RED base.





	1. Stage 1

The time approached nine-thirty in the morning. While the sun was hovering in a cloudless sky, the air was still somewhat cool, a welcome change from the normally-sweltering badlands of New Mexico. Still, there was no reason to be hanging around outside at the moment. While the seemingly-random collection of rundown buildings was far from inviting, one could sense that some of them were filled with men plotting a grand scheme or two.

Hidden away in a thought-to-be-unusable mining shaft, eight men dressed in blue milled about, preparing themselves for the day of work ahead. The youngest ran about willy-nilly, stretching out his legs. The Australian inspected his equipment for cleanliness. The Scotsman enjoyed a cold refreshment. The leader was sketching something on a blackboard. The Frenchman scrolled through his inventory, checking its functionality. The muscleman ensured that his lunch was still there. The medic ensured that his equipment was charged. The last man appeared to be doing nothing, though it was likely he was simply daydreaming of what was to come.

In the back of the bunker sat two interesting devices. The first autonomously manufactured, stored, and dispensed the various materials that would be useful for the upcoming day's work, while the second was the quantum transportation device used to initially get everyone into the bunker without being seen. Presently, a ninth man appeared out of nowhere, standing on the revolving teleporter with a toolbox in one hand and a large wrench in the other. Satisfied with everyone now being present, he walked off to place his toolbox down by the dispensing device.

"Alright men," the leader called, "let's get this briefing underway." He adjusted his overlarge helmet to no practical effect as everyone started gathering around.

The man with the wrench was about to join the others, but no sooner than he lifted one foot off the ground, the spinning teleporter began to wobble, spark, and make dangerous-sounding noises.

"Dammit!" He retrieved a handheld control device as if from nowhere and began pressing several buttons in a distinct pattern, looking up midway to see if there was any improvement. There was none; the teleporter continued to get further off-kilter and burst into flames.

"Aw, hell." He shielded his face with his gloved hand as the teleporter crashed, releasing a cloud of smoke and bluish quantum fiber particles as it stopped moving entirely. Once the afterglow had subsided, he turned to survey the damage.

He dropped both his wrench and his control device in shock.

"Oh my god."

Irritated at the delay, the leader called again. "C'mon Engie, I haven't got all day."

The Engineer shook his head as he turned to respond. "If'n you can hold your horses for just a damn second, soldier boy, I got a teleporter malfunction to deal with. An' it is a doozy."

The Soldier dismissively waved his hand; he didn't like having to delay, but there was no way they could succeed without functioning equipment.

The Engineer cautiously walked over to the teleporter. Or more specifically, the person that had fallen out of it when it crashed. He'd seen this kind of thing before; teleporters were the most finnicky of his buildings, and occasionally crashed for no rhyme or reason, leaving whoever was trying to use it dazed and confused (and sometimes not teleported at all). But this time around was different, because there wasn't supposed to be anyone else coming through, or even aware of the entrance's existence.

And that didn't even consider the person's appearance: a young lady wearing lavender and blue with high-class gloves and stockings, silver hair, what looked to be a wooden carving attached to her belt, and a pair of white wings attached to her head. The Engineer's first instinct was that she had been fused with a bird somehow as part of the teleporter accident, but previous cases of such fusing were always much more gruesome and not nearly as perfectly symmetrical.

He didn't want to get too close and startle her, but he did need her to wake up so he could ask what had happened on her side. Picking his trusty wrench back up, he tapped the nearest support beam with it to make a dull wooden sound. It was enough to get her to start moving. After looking around and realizing she was clearly not where she expected to be, she quickly jumped to her feet and grabbed the wooden object on her belt, which had somehow extended into a quarterstaff, and addressed the nearest person.

"Where am I?" she asked, trying to find a midpoint between forceful and respectful. "What is this place?"

The Engineer was expecting the question, but not the posh pronunciation, which threw him for a loop for a few seconds. As far as he knew, the British monarchy had no access to teleporter technology, nor a not-quite-human daughter.

"Well ma'am, this is an industrial compound somewhere in the southwestern United States." He wasn't sure how much he could reveal to an outsider, but he had to help somehow.

The girl shook her head, distrustful of the unfamiliar accent. "Those words mean nothing to me. Where am I in relation to Eryth Sea?"

It was the Engineer's turn to look confused, though his welding goggles masked it somewhat. "I ain't no geography major, but that's just as foreign a name to me."

"Then perhaps you could at least explain what has happened to bring me here." No longer firmly in panic mode, she re-collapsed her staff to portable size and replaced it on her belt.

"Let's see if I can." The Engineer gathered his PDA and began running some diagnostics on the crashed teleporter. "I just need to know one thing: What was the last thing you were doing before this happened?"

"I was utilizing a transporter pad."

"Bingo, that makes things easier." He continued to press buttons to dig through the logs. He'd had this happen once before: two separate teleporter systems had mixed signals, sending his teammate into enemy territory and bringing an enemy into their base. He installed some new software to try and fix the issue, but apparently there was another possibility he'd overlooked.

"Alrighty then ma'am, here's the deal. From the looks of things, our two teleporter systems hitched up somehow and got all cross-eyed. You stepped onto your end and came outta our end."

She nodded. "I see." She'd never been part of a transporter malfunction before, but had heard stories of all kinds of unexpected events when circumstances were set up perfectly wrong.

"So the good news is, it's a pretty easy fix. I got all the info here that tells me exactly what went wrong, so I know just how to fix it, send you back, and hopefully stop it from happenin' again." He paused and looked over towards the Soldier, still waiting impatiently. "But now for the bad news. It's a simple fix, but not a quick one. It'll take me about...twenty, thirty minutes. And the fact is, I don't have that kinda time right now."

"What could be more important than rectifying this incident?"

"Well, uh..." The Engineer started fidgiting, unsure exactly how much he was allowed to say. "I'm under contract to do a job, and we're gonna start in about five minutes. If you want to know exactly what it's about...well, you might as well listen in on the briefing. If Soldier lets you, that is. He's a bit...uh, closed-minded." He looked back over. "I oughta get over there, they're lookin' impatient."

He started walking towards the others. The young lady stood still for a moment, unsure what to do, before deciding to follow.

The briefing was being held in the front of the bunker. A staircase leading to the surface was close by, with what looked like a medicine cabinet near its foot, and a tunnel that led in the same general direction. The rest of the blue-clad men were hanging around, waiting.

The Soldier was grumpy. "Who's this?" He pointed at the girl, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"This is..." The Engineer realized he didn't know. "What's your name again?"

"My name is Melia."

The Engineer explained the situation. "We've had a teleporter malfunction that crossed into who knows where, and I'm afraid she's stuck with us until I have enough time to fix it."

"A civilian trapped in a war zone? Just what we don't need." The Soldier chomped on his cigar. "I have no beef with your posh patoot, but if you get in our way you'll be seeing that headdress of yours in a museum! Any objections, lady?"

Taken aback by the attitude, Melia simply shook her head. The Soldier scowled and turned to everyone else.

"Now then! Thanks to yesterday's success at Doublecross Ditch, we have obtained invaluable intelligence regarding the RED team's dastardly plans! More specifically, the location of a RED base, which we're standing just outside of right now! And _why are we here_?"

He opened a nearby red briefcase, took a photo out of it, and held it up for all to see.

"THIS, men! It is a rocket! We don't know why it's here, we don't know what it's for, but by _GOD_ we won't let those RED pukeballs use it for whatever their plans are, no _sir_! And _that_ is why we have Capture Plan Dustbowl!"

He pointed to the blackboard. The left side was a carefully-drawn map in white of three interlocking areas, with blue and red arrows and other icons drawn to mark points of interest. The right side was labelled "Capture Plan Dustbowl" in a hasty all-caps scrawl, with the plan being listed as: _1\. Take RED pansies by surprise. 2. Kill them all. 3. Take over points. 4. Loot._

The Soldier started to point to relevant areas of the map while talking. "Spy has identified a total of six control computers, supported by a total of three respawn rooms. So, our goal is to capture the control computers two at a time, take over the respawn room, and push further into the base. Once we have all six, the base is OURS, and we will fire that cursed rocket fifty miles out from here into an empty salt flat were those RED crazies can't recover it!"

There was a smattering of applause from the rest of the team.

"So! Since we only got this intel yesterday, we're pretty sure those RED maggots don't think we'll be here yet. I expect to take the first point without trouble. If they're not busy sleeping with their baby bears and thumbs in their mouths, they'll probably show up at point two, like it'll do them any good. After that, they'll have a chance to fortify defenses while we take over the respawn room, so we'll discuss further strategy then."

Everyone nodded.

"Now, just in case those RED meatbags ARE somehow waiting for us, here's the plan of attack for the first point. Sniper, you hold 'em down from this crevice in the middle here. Scout, Engie, and Spy, you come out from the right flank and support from there. Pyro, you do whatever the hell it is you do, I don't care. The rest of us will be pushing up the left side into the building. I want Heavy to go in first, so Medic, stay on him. Demo, try throwing some stickies in the upper floor on the right side there, if there's a sentry that's where it'll be. Once we take the first point, we'll head up and into the left side, where there's a good spot for a forward base."

It seemed like the team didn't really need to be told any of this, but they agreed regardless.

"We move out in two minutes. Go!"

The meeting broke up as everyone started moving to the correct exits.

Somewhat overwhelemed by all she had just heard, Melia tailed the Engineer as he packed up his Dispenser. She wasn't completely sure, but she suspected that things were about to get violent.

"Excuse me, but is anyone other than you capable of repairing your transporter?"

The Engineer shrugged. "'Fraid not, ma'am. Anyone else would be lucky to operate it when it's workin'."

"Then...what happens if you get injured and cannot work?"

"Heh. That won't be happenin'. You saw our Medic, right? Anything happens to any one of us, he'll fix us up good as new faster than you can say "I'm in need of medical attention"."

Melia thought for a moment.

"Is there any way I can assist you? To finish your task faster, so I can return sooner?"

The Engineer's face went grim at the suggestion. "This ain't some training exercise, ma'am. We're up against people just like us, armed with the same real guns as we are, and I don't think they'll have mercy in the heat of battle. I don't mean to offend you, but I wouldn't last three seconds if one o' their big guys saw me out there, and I'm a sight more bulky than you are."

Melia instinctively became huffy. "Excuse me, I am not as weak as I appear. I-"

"I ain't sayin' you should or shouldn't come along. Heck, we could always use another member on our side, reliable or not. I'm just sayin' that I'm protected under contract if anything happens, and you ain't. The choice is yours."

With everyone else ready to go, the Engineer picked up his toolbox and headed down the rightmost tunnel. Not long afterwards, Melia heard the swish of several gates opening all at once, followed by many footsteps of the team receding. A single volley of gunfire was heard.

 _I can't just wait here for them to finish their task._ Melia cautiously wandered down the right tunnel to see that it made a left turn down a railed corridor. _Based on the lack of sound, any conflict that is occurring seems to be minimal. It must be safe enough to at least observe._

She continued down the tunnel to reach the exit. Peering through a shack on the right, she heard a bell as most of the blue team exited a building further off, heading down the topmost and leftmost of three tunnels in the far rock face.

 _The leader said they would be advancing on the left into a building, and they are just now leaving a building. They must have completed the first task and are advancing. Therefore, this area must be secure._ Confident in her logic, Melia stepped out from behind the shack.

Something immensly loud blew by her left ear, followed by a reddish trail in the air.

"AAAAH!" She clumsily dove back behind the shack.

Having just arrived to the right tunnel, the RED team's Sniper stood with a stunned look on his face.

"What the bloody hell was that?" He thought he had seen a short girl with wings on her head walk out in front of his scope, which messed up his aim. He looked back through his scope and hoped he would get another shot.

Instead, he felt something in his back.

Melia sat with her back against the shack, hyperventilating. _Clear intent to aim for the head; only luck saved me._ She took several deep breaths and calmed down. _I am not making the same mistake again. Always have defenses prepared when going into unfamiliar territory._

Extending her staff, she focused her ether energy to summon an earth elemental, an orange cube of defensive energy that hovered over her head. To be safe, she created a second one, followed by producing a purple nexus of electrical energy. Mentally controlling the bolt, she fired it around the corner, across the landscape, and down the tunnel where the enemy had been. She could sense it hit the back wall and dissipated.

_No hit. The rifleman must have left, perhaps to support the rest of his team._

Spotting two boxes of supplies in the shack, she tossed them out the side door in an attempt to draw attention. Nothing happened. She carefully stuck the head of her staff out the door; still nothing happened. Finally, she stepped out of the shack into the open. No one was around.

 _I don't want to stay out in the open. I should remain in the tunnels, where I cannot be outranged._ Melia dashed into the tunnel on the right, which opened into a room that also contained two packages of supplies. Sounds of a proper fight were now audible.

_I should be able to keep control of this room; I can cover all three entrances with-_

"AUUGH!" The Soldier had arrived through the door on the left, but immediately fell to the ground and stopped moving. The reason was obvious: his entire body was on fire.

Now realizing what the scattered supplies were for, Melia picked up the square-shaped blue health pack and started carrying it over to the Soldier, expecting to find something within that could get him back on his feet. However, she was interrupted by an ominous shadow approaching from the same door the Soldier had entered from - whatever had set him alight was pursuing, and it looked like it had a dragon's head.

Melia didn't want anything to do with the incoming threat, and to be completely honest it looked like the Soldier was past help anyways. She booted the health pack back where she got it from and scrambled up the stairs on the right just as the RED team's Pyro entered the room. In contrast to the BLU team's Pyro, who had just a rubber glove attached to his head, the RED Pyro was decked out to be menacing, with an angular mask and spiked black armbands and collar. Seeing no one but his most recent kill, he sprayed the area with flames a bit before turning back.

At the exit door at the top of the stairs, Melia could see the BLU team's Sniper across the way, with various other flashes of blue suggesting that most of the team was gathered up in the tunnel behind him. She could probably reach them by walking across the bridge that connected the wooden near side with the rocky far side, but based on how the Sniper was covering himself, it was a path that cut straight through the line of fire.

 _The blue team has concentrated their efforts on the opposite side of this building._ She looked to the right where the enemy presumably was; a pile of crates perched on the edge of the rooftop provided the perfect cover. _I should be able to provide a minor distraction while remaining safe._

Keeping low to the ground, she sidled up to the crates and peeked through a crack between them. Positioned against a circular building was a red gun turret with at least twelve gun barrels and four rocket tubes, actively scanning the area. Just behind it appeared to be someone reclining on a chair.

 _A stationary target. Mechanical, but not invincible._ Melia shuffled her two earth elementals around to ensure they wouldn't give her position away before summoning a bolt, which she lobbed over the crates to strike the sentry gun.

"Wha?" The RED Engineer, wearing a black hat and button-up trenchcoat, was roused from his relaxation as the gear in his welding glasses informed him that his sentry had just taken 50 damage. Confused as to what the source of the damage was, he looked around but saw no enemies.

 _Another._ Melia summoned and discharged a second bolt for the same effect, then peeked through the gap in the crates to see the results.

"If that ain't..." Snarling, the Engineer got up off his chair and repaired the damage with one swing of his spiked wrench. He then turned to the RED Soldier, who was collecting some rockets from the dispenser in behind. "Soldier, you see that? Someone's shootin' some kinda ball lightning at mah sentry. You think you could-AWHUH!"

Melia had launched a fiery elemental this time, which exploded on contact with the sentry to deal a critical 50 damage to the Engineer and set him on fire, but only did a paltry 20 damage to the sentry itself.

"Yeah, I saw it." The Soldier adjusted his black, three-starred helment. "You keep our defenses topped up. I'll handle this."

The Engineer nodded as he repaired the minor damage and stepped back to his dispenser.

 _The rules of this world are even stranger than I could have guessed._ Melia tried to make sense of her damage output. _I expected my ether attacks to deal halved damage to mechanical targets, but for this one to be also immune to afterburn and even critical hits? That's unheard of._

Suddenly, she sensed something. Her ether awareness was telling her that a nearby antagonistic being had spotted her and was aggroing in. She didn't see anyone wearing red until she looked up - someone who looked just like the Soldier was falling from the sky, holding a folding shovel with olive-coloured accents. There was no time to react before he smacked her with it and the world instantly went black.

"Got 'im?" The RED Engineer had topped himself up and was back in his chair.

"Got her." The Soldier put away his melee weapon. "Some sort of wizard girl; a lot fancy-pantsier than that hobo coot Merasmus."

"Well don't that beat all. Bring 'er down here, we'll study her once the lockdown is finished."

"Will do. C'mere, you." He bent down to pick up the strange newcomer.

Instead, he got a slap in the face.

"What in..." The Soldier stared in astonishment as Melia very slowly picked up her staff, her earth elementals lifting back up off the floor. The defensive aura they radiated, combined with her commitment to reliability, was just barely enough to protect her from the massive package of physical damage that had just been inflicted.

"No creature of your size that walks on God's earth should survive what I just did to you. I am taking no chances." He reached behind himself and somehow extracted a rocket launcher, shining a blazing golden color in the cloudless day. "Say your prayers, mutant wizard girl."

There was an explosion nearby as the BLU Soldier flew up onto the roof, whacking the RED one with his own Market Gardener, dropping him in one hit. "Have a taste of your own medicine, hippie!" He pointed towards Melia. "Don't think I did this to save you."

Melia was now massively confused. Now she had seen three of the same person - first one wearing blue who died by fire earlier, then one wearing red that had it out for her, and now another wearing blue that looked exactly like the first and had memory of her. The only possible explanation was that the two blue ones were the same person somehow. "But...but...but I saw you die mere minutes ago!"

"I do not have permission to die!" Picking up the enemy's dropped weapon, he fired a rocket over the crates that launched with an electric crackle and trailed blue smoke, impacting the ground nearby the red sentry with a thunderclap and spattering sound. He followed it up with two rockets at the sentry itself, which destroyed it easily. "Move, move, move!"

The gates leading to the tunnel across the bridge opened, with the blue team's Demoman and Medic leading the charge. Holding what looked to be a tube with a tank attached to it, the Demoman's weapon glowed blue and sparked with power as he fired a series of glittering balls towards the enemy team. As each projectile exploded and turned the red team into red chunks, more and more of the blue team spilled out of the tunnel and towards the nearby building. It didn't take long for the bell of success to ring once more.

"Two points down, four to go!" The Soldier jumped down from the roof and headed right with the rest of the team, heading towards the respawn room so they could begin converting it into their possession.

The BLU Engineer, who had stayed behind to ensure his base in the tunnel wouldn't be taken out on the sly, crossed the bridge and crouched down next to Melia. "Learnin' what's up the hard way, I see."

Melia slowly got to her feet, now having summoned a water elemental to gradually replenish her energy. "I...I do not know what I expected, but a war between factions of immortal twins was not it."

The Engineer chuckled. "If you're gonna fight alongside us, ma'am, y'all need to be told a few things. C'mon, we'll patch you up in the room."

He jumped off the roof and followed the rest of the team. Still winded, Melia carefully lowered herself down and landed clumsily before following.

* * *

Two control points further away, the RED team was gathered in their second respawn room. They were quite upset at their failure to hold the territory, the Soldier the most so.

"...And as if THAT was not bad enough, we have found out that those good-for-nothing BLU worms have somehow hired some sort of mutant wizard bird girl onto their team! She was throwing balls of fire and lightning at our sentry, and when I went to clean her up, she survived my Market Gardener before I was hit with a cheap shot! Girl or not, this extra enemy is no joker!"

"Why don't y'all calm down, Soldier." The Engineer was looking over a set of blueprints. "If'n we're okay with a bit of a lighter defense on point three, I got just the ticket to even the odds a bit."

The Soldier considered. He didn't like the idea of intentionally losing even more territory; the more control points they lost, the less computer power they'd have available for launching the rocket, and the more time the enemy team would have to continue their assault. But this was clearly a unique situation that may very well call for a unique plan.

"Okay greasemonkey, the floor is yours. Don't disappoint me."


	2. Stage 2

The commandeered respawn rowm was a lot brighter and cleaner than the mining shaft, but it was also much tighter quarters. It was cramped enough with nine men trying to regroup from a gunfight, let alone add a visitor from another realm.

Preferring to let her elementals heal herself than trust in the medicine of this strange world, Melia sat on a bench next to the Engineer, who was working on the long-range teleporter while explaining to her the nature of the respawn system. It had taken him a few minutes to return to the mine and retrieve it after the team had settled into the room, which cut into the time he had available to repair it - the Soldier wanted them to begin stage 2 as soon as possible in order to try and keep the enemy team staggered.

"...Unfortunately for you, it's out of the question to add someone to the respawn system in less than 72 hours. It's just too involved a process." He closed a panel and wiped his brow before opening another one and doing more work. "So if you want to keep fighting alongside us, you won't have a safety net, get me?"

Melia nodded. "I understand the risks." She was no stranger to near-death situations, though admittedly they were of more personal importance than just helping some strangers fight a war.

"Alrighty then." The Engineer reached for an unidentified spray can and covered the teleporter's innards with it. "Now on the other hand, our Medic can heal you no problem, no preparation required. You get hurt, just give him a call, and he'll do what he can to offer a hand. Either that, or just pick up one of those health kits the RED team has spread around the place. Just try not to take 'em from someone on fire."

"We move out in one minute," the Soldier announced. "Get going!"

The Engineer sighed; he was only about three or four minutes away from completing the fix. He followed the others outside and began erecting a dispenser while most of the team congregated in the tunnel that led to the next area. Melia slowly followed.

While applying the correct amounts of force in the exact locations to accelerate building setup, the Engineer turned to Melia. "Say, if you don't mind me askin', what's up with that necklace of yours? It looks like it's glowin' a bit weird."

Melia looked down at the necklace. It was quite simple: a pendant with a lens-shaped blue gem framed in red, hung on a silver thread. The gem was indeed glowing with a faint, pulsating blue light.

"Oh, um...it's from a...friend of mine. It's a...good-luck charm."

The Engineer nodded understandingly and began the construction of the entrance to the short-range teleporter system, which would deliver respawning team members to the front lines.

Having not thought about the necklace for some time, Melia found herself reliving some memories involving it.

* * *

_The doorbell rang in its tri-tone. Not doing anything particularly important, it took Melia no time to answer it._

_"Oh hello Shulk."_

_"Hi." Shulk was holding a box with three identical necklaces inside, each one housing a pulsating blue gem. "I've got a present for you."_

_Melia guessed what he actually meant. "You mean, for each one of us?"_

_"Well, yeah." He took out one of the pendants and held it out to her. "Alvis calls it a Vision Gem. He gave me six of them, so of course he means for me to give one to each of you."_

_"A Vision Gem?" Melia took it and gave it a look-over. "A means for people other than yourself to have visions of the future?"_

_"That's what I'm guessing. You know how he never gives a straight answer to anything. But from what he did say, I'm pretty sure it'll only work once, and you have to be wearing it."_

_"Fascinating..."_

* * *

_"So I'm trying to lead the group down the cave," Reyn began. "You know how them Nopon mappers are, always jumpin' ahead to be first to catch glimpse of something. Well, suddenly I can't see nothing but this big flash of light. I didn't clue in to what it was for a bit, I thought I maybe banged my head on the ceiling at first. So we come to a wide spot in the cave and one of the Nopon runs into a big rock spire. I guess it was eroding wrong, because that made it break apart and send the whole cave into a big collapse. Then it ends and I'm back in the real world. It took me a bit to figure out what just happened, but I got it soon enough. Kinda surprised they responded to me yelling out that it might collapse, to be honest. We turned back and made sure to warn anyone who might be 'eadin that way."_

_"Mine was kinda like that," Fiora said, "except I was just sitting at home when it happened. I saw something sharp come loose of an Armu's pack, which it then stepped on, causing it to blindly run into a group of children and through a fence into the sea. I ran outside and got the rider's attention, which made the sharp thing fall off in a different direction, so it never happened."_

_"It really is a lifesaving ability to have," Sharla added. "I was about to give someone a particular type of medicine before I was interrupted by seeing them have a fatal allergic reaction to it. He had no idea he had an allergy."_

_"Count yourselves lucky, to be saving others' lives with your visions," Dunban chuckled. "All I could save was my own skin. I was having a walk and saw a vision of tripping on a rock, which caused me to fall in such a way that my sword cut my left hand off. Simple but brutal."_

_"Riki's vision also helped save self from doom. Riki was ponning about with Oka when Riki saw big bright light. In light, Riki make legendary Nopon joke. But somewhy, Oka not like joke. Oka slap Riki and run away with baby cry face, saying she hate Riki. Light go away and Riki come back to real time. Riki still wanted to tell joke, but decided it not good time. Riki invented nice thing to say instead."_

_Everyone laughed at Riki's antics before turning expectantly to Melia, waiting for the story of her vision. But after a few seconds of waiting with no results but a disappointed stare, they realized that her pendant was still glowing blue, unlike their own which had gone dark after expending their power._

_"You...you haven't had a vision yet, Melia?" Shulk was a mix of confused and worried._

_"No, I have not. Several things have happened in the past month that could possibly have merited one, yet nothing has occurred."_

_"Well..." Shulk shrugged. "That's kind of a good thing, I guess? I mean, you only get one, so if you've only had a few "possibly"s so far, you know it's not being wasted before something big happens...right?"_

_"Perhaps."_

* * *

"Gates are down, go, go, go!"

The Soldier's voice roused Melia from her thoughts. She waited for the blue team to charge outwards before squeezing herself across the right side of the area, slipping into the alley behind a building.

 _Raise defenses in case I am ambushed._ She summoned two elementals: an earth one and an ice one, covering both physical and non-physical attacks, leaving her third slot open for now. _I will wait for the main force to-_

She heard the screams of a Medic, Demoman, and Heavy. Something had killed them all in a short time span, leaving no time to react.

_That is unfortunate. I shall have to wait to make my move until they return._

Melia peeked out from the corner of the shack. She could see the holographic logo of the capture point on a wooden structure to the left, across a mostly-empty field.

_There is most certainly a rifleman somewhere, covering the wide area. Only once I can ascertain his position can I determine how to advance._

A low-pitched howl of wind pushed through the alley. Melia was going to ignore it when she realized that the air was still; it had to be something that was only pretending to be wind. Something that used an innocuous noise to conceal itself. Deciding that it could be a threat, she whirled around to see...an exact duplicate of herself.

"What is this nonsense? Who are you?" It probably wasn't the best way to respond, but it was the most obvious.

"I should ask _you_ the same question!" The voice was identical to hers - almost. It had just the slightest tinge of uncertainty, and the vowels were very slightly off in ways that only someone who had known her voice for years could detect.

Still confused but with an inkling of a guess as to what was going on, Melia looked closer at the imposter's appearance. For the most part it was a perfect facsimile, but that line of stitches on the sleeve was just a bit too far inset, the feathers weren't fluttering realistically, and the staff's proportions were just slightly off. It would fool anyone else at a glance, and perhaps even her friends if they didn't have the real thing to compare with, but not her.

 _This must be some sort of trick, likely a form of holographics._ "Your disguise is impressive, but far from faultless. Show your true self!"

"I won't need to." The duplicate smirked and raised a bulky, black-and-grey revolver that glowed and crackled with red energy. "Because who else is going to know?"

"Uhuh, gerh yoo arh!" The BLU Pyro came around the corner and opened fire. The RED Spy immediately dropped his disguise and planted one shot into the rubber-suited adversary, but couldn't get off a second shot before being roasted.

"Rrhts gu gyhs uhghn fmkym." Just to be sure, the Pyro bashed the Frenchman in the head with a sledgehammer.

"...Thank you." Melia couldn't quite trust the faceless one, but he at least seemed to be cheerful and on-the-ball.

"No krawglm! Ehnyfng fr uhn ehyngl." He ran off towards the point, intercepting the incoming RED Demoman with a blast of air that turned his own grenade against him. He then proceeded into the lower level of the left wooden building, which based on the sounds was where all of the action was taking place.

 _If everything is happening on the left, I should be able to advance on the right, and inconvenience the enemy from behind._ Hugging the right rock face, Melia dashed around a silo and continued until she entered a tunnel. Keeping to the right, she heard a beeping around the corner.

 _The enemy constructor again, with another defensive turret._ She paused to consider her strategy. It would target her and open fire the instant she showed herself. She didn't have an anti-Mechon staff ready, so there was no way she could outdamage it, especially if it was being repaired.

The Pyro's grenade deflection bubbled up in her mind.

"Braap." The RED Engineer sat in his chair behind his sentry, waiting patiently while guzzling his beer. He knew the BLU Spy wouldn't bother with a sentry this far away from the active point; he'd rather get the backs stabbed to help the team immediately. And if someone wanted to sneak to their respawn room, they wouldn't take this tunnel, as it'd be quite the detour. He also knew that the BLU team tended to keep using winning strategies, which in this case would be "send the team on our left and the wildcard on our right". As far as he was concerned, it was inevitable that his quarry would be the first to come this way.

Almost right on cue, Melia leapt out from around the corner.

"REFLECTION!" She spun her staff, forming a ring of hexagonal mirrors around herself. The sentry spun up its barrels and launched its rockets, but the shiny panels spun around Melia's body with unnatural speed, bouncing every one of the shots right back to where they came from. Within two seconds, the sentry had destroyed itself.

"Aha!" The Engineer sat up and pointed. "Get 'er!"

There was a whooshing sound from deep in the tunnel's corner. Melia was about to turn around when a massive pair of hands grabbed her, pinning her arms to her sides. One of the hands had a leather watch wrapped around the index finger.

"Get your filthy hands off me!" She tried kicking backwards and hit what felt like a knee, but it had absolutely no effect. She wasn't going to unload an elemental into the enemy; it would only deal damage without affecting his grip, and if the huge hands were any indication he would be able to retaliate to devastating effect just by squeezing.

"Heh. You are no match for me." The RED Heavy, arms bare with rippling mucles showing, lifted her off the ground with zero effort.

"You just hold still, missy." The Engineer had walked up and extracted some sort of radar pointer from his pocket. He pointed it at Melia and performed some sort of scan, passing a red beam up and down her body. The bell of a successful capture was heard in the distance.

"That'll do it." He reholstered his Wrangler and hurried to pack up his chair. "I gotta go get set up on 4. Heavy, have fun with your meatshield." Toolbox in hand, he dashed out the gated exit.

"Heh heh heh. It is good day to be giant man."

"Unhand me this instant, you grotesque creature!" Frustrated, Melia tried to clip the Heavy in the head with her staff, but she didn't have enough reach.

Luckily for her, reinforcements arrived. The BLU team's Engineer, Soldier, and Pyro all entered the tunnel, with intent to get a forward base established.

"You!" The RED Heavy was ready to gloat. "What sick man sends _princess_ to fight me? Shame."

"What's your mamma taught you about takin' what ain't yours?" The Engineer was busy holding a toolbox over his shoulder; he couldn't engage.

"Drop the civilian at once, commie!" the Soldier hollered.

"Hrhf!"

"Fight me! I _dare_ you."

"Yeh!" The BLU Sniper peeked around the corner and fired a quick shot, pegging the Heavy in the head.

"No!" The Heavy lifted Melia up higher, covering his head.

"You can't even be a coward right, you waste of potatoes!" The Soldier snatched the Engineer's pistol off his belt and peppered the Heavy's now-visible feet.

"Uh-oh!" The flaw in his plan was exposed; the Heavy was far too large for a Melia-sized shield to effectively protect. He started trying to back off and get out the other end of the tunnel, but the Soldier pursued with the pistol, and the Pyro hammered his toes to help take him down.

With no more resistance, the Engineer dropped his toolbox and unpacked the pre-built dispenser, followed by somehow obtaining another toolbox and turning it into a teleporter exit. His teammates gathered around the dispenser to recover from the incidental wounds they had taken earlier, with other teammates wandering in and out of the tunnel.

Melia was about to thank the team for saving her again, but the Engineer waved her off. "What was that all about?" he asked.

"The enemy constructor used a handheld device to perform some sort of scan on me."

"Ugh." He shook his head. "I don't know what that could be about, but it won't be good, I can tell ya that for sure. We talk a lot o' trash about the RED team, but truth is, they're just as resourceful as we are. One of us comes up with a new weapon or strategy, the other copies it without much trouble." He paused. "If I had to guess, they want your staff, assuming that's where the magic happens. But if that were it, why not just steal it from you? It ain't encouragin'."

"Well, it's impossible to forcibly remove it from my grasp, but they wouldn't know that..."

_*beep beep beep*_

The Engineer had erected the final part of his nest, the sentry, and it had decided to lock onto Melia.

"...awwwww, hell." The Engineer scrambled for his demolition remote. "C'mon hon, don't let me down. She's on our side. Look at the blue, not the pink. Not red, no red anywhere at all here. Don't look at the shinies either, stay on the blue. Call her a spectator if ya have to, just don't shoot."

The sentry held its "head" perfectly still, as if it was trying to determine what team this new colour scheme was supposed to side with. After a total of about twenty seconds, it broke off and began its idle scan.

"Phew. Ain't that a relief." He put his remote away. "I shoulda calibrated her on ya earlier, my fault."

Melia felt quite uneasy. Even what seemed to be the most rational member of the blue team had made a critical, potentially life-threatening oversight.

"Hello again." The Soldier appeared out of the teleporter exit as the Demoman and Medic arrived through the tunnel entrance. "I found the sentry, it's on the right side in a near corner. Demo, Heavy, Sniper, take the left route and keep them occupied."

The rest of the team that was present nodded; the named members went off to follow the plan.

"Now for you, missy." He rubbed his hands together with the air of a kid ready to unleash his secret weapon. "I think those RED scumbags have decided you're some sort of free agent and aren't worth paying attention to. Not the first mistake they've ever made. Get ready to be the pointman on this next push of ours; we're gonna give you the crits."

"Er, what?" Melia did not agree with his assessment; while she had indeed acted alone so far instead of in conjunction with the team, the lengths the enemy went to in order to scan her suggested they realized she was a threat. And "the crits" didn't seem all that powerful to her; they'd raise morale and spirit, but the extra 25% damage wasn't a game-changer. "I beg to differ-"

She felt an unusual energy cover her body, reminiscent of the kind of ether fired by healing rifles, though in more of a sustained aura form.

"Move! Schnell!" The Medic had latched his healing beam onto her, his Kritzkrieg crackling with energy.

The Engineer finished reloading his pistol. "Follow Soldier towards the point and wait for the call, we'll be right with you. And get ready for some offensive power. You're gonna put the fear in their eyes, don't you worry."

While still not a fan of the idea, Melia dispelled her defensive elementals and replaced them with a flare and two bolts.

"Let's go." The Soldier carefully stepped out the gated door and through the building on the right, careful to not step into what could be the line of fire, with everyone else following. "Scout, give him the signal. Wait for the sap."

Melia didn't know what this meant, but the others did. The Scout ran back out and towards the left side of the battle, where the Demoman, Heavy, and Sniper were fighting from. A loud wooden crack was heard.

After about a ten-second wait, a loud clamp sounded through the walls.

"ATTACK!" The Soldier dashed out from behind cover and easily destroyed the sapped sentry. The rest of the BLU team flowed out of the building to join the fight.

"Now go!" The Medic pushed his patient along and activated his charge.

Stumbling out into view of the battle, Melia felt a huge surge of energy flow through her staff. It was kind of like the power generated by her elemental burst aura, except it was making the staff glow and spark instead of herself. She spotted the enemy Heavy first and shot a bolt at him. Expecting to need all three of her shots to take him down, she was stunned to see the single bolt blast him apart. She tried tossing the second bolt at the enemy Soldier, which eliminated him in one shot as well. Finally, she took aim at a group: the Demoman, Engineer, and Scout. The flare she sent their way detonated with enough force that the Scout and Engineer vanished almost instantly, while the Demoman was quickly finished by someone else's bullets. With the rest of the BLU team taking care of the others, there wasn't anyone left to attack.

"Whoooowhee!" The Engineer danced on the point as the whole team stood atop it and taunted in various ways. "Give'r!" He held up his hand.

Standing on the ground below the point, Melia reached up with her staff to tap the outstreched hand.


	3. Stage 3

"Well I reckon that's that." The Engineer flipped everything closed again and gave the teleporter a quick manual spin. "I got a one-time connection set up to wherever it is you came from. Just walk on up and you're golden."

Melia nodded absently, staring straight ahead.

"Somethin' on your mind, ain't there?"

"...The opposing army you fight. What is their goal?"

"Well, I dunno what I can tell you on that front." The Engineer crossed his arms and thought for a bit. "They stand for Reliable Excavation and Demolition, but they've got their hands in a lot of pies, and a lot of their intent is behind the scenes and unknown to us. Come to think of it, our own headquarters is a bit on the shady side - we're called Builders League United, for the record - but to an extent I don't much care. As long as I'm havin' fun and the pay's good, it don't really matter to me what the end goal is."

Melia couldn't help a look of disgust from showing. "You kill endless duplicates of people for _fun_?"

"Me? Nah, I don't like the killin'. I more enjoy keepin' the team topped up with my machines. I mean, if some dumb sap wanders too close and my sentry takes 'im out, then yeah I'll have a laugh, but it's only 'cause I know he's not really dead." He looked around the respawn room and continued in a quieter voice. "Can't say the same fer the others though, I swear the killin's a game to most of 'em. Well, at least we ain't killin' civilians; everyone on this property signed up for this. 'Cept for you I guess."

The long-range teleporter, sitting in the corner of the room, finished its slow power-on sequence and lit up. Melia stared at it for a moment before looking away.

"I cannot leave until we discover why I have been scanned by the enemy."

"Suit yerself, ma'am."

"Okay men," the Soldier hollered, "we're almost done with this godforsaken wasteland. All we need is two more points and that rocket is ours!"

A cheer rose up from the other guys.

"Now based on what I've been told, those RED tapeworms called our strategy pretty well in stage two, so it's time to change it up. Medic, I think invincerabulnaty would can-opener these narrow corridors nicely."

The Medic nodded and went to the resupply cabinet, exchanging his Kritzkrieg for a stock Übercannon.

"And as for our surprise tactical advantage," he continued, pointing at Melia, "this time she'll be the distraction instead of the lynchpin. With the enemy focusing on her invulnincibiliby-ness, the rest of us can just head straight for the first point and cap it quick. And from there, all we need is sustained pressure to break through to the end! Let's move!"

More confident but still slightly worried, Melia followed the team outside and through the concrete building that would serve as the staging area for the next attack.

"So here's the deal, missy." The Soldier addressed her directly. "Those RED meatheads will be focusing on you now, but we're one step ahead of that. You have eight seconds to draw attention while we cap this first point. Make sure you get to safety before that time runs out!"

_Eight seconds. That's more protection than Reflection gives me. This shouldn't be much trouble._

The Sniper, who was looking out the gates through his scope, spotted something interesting. "Have a gander at this, mates. Their Demo's got a shield on."

"He does?" The Soldier snatched the rifle and peered through the scope upside-down. "He does! Interesting. That means we'll have to watch out for sudden charges instead of stickies. And lookie here, that's a Battalion's Backup! They thought we'd stay with the Kritz? They think we're that predictable? Hah!"

Irritated, the Sniper snatched his weapon back and started cleaning it with his sleeve. "And who's wearing their Buff Banner right now, mister smartypants?"

The gates opened. Everyone backed off from the doors to avoid the initial burst of incoming fire. Once it subsided, they stepped outside and gathered behind the building on the left.

"To move on, we need to know where the sentry's set up," the Soldier said suspiciously loudly. "Man, if only we knew whether it was on the _left_ or the _right_ , we'd be golden."

A few seconds later, someone from the far side of the building whistled.

"Whistle, first option, today is an opposite day, it's on the right." He prodded Melia, who had summoned a wind elemental to boost her footspeed. "Get out there and distract the sentry so we can get through, then fall back."

"Very well." Making sure that the Medic was ready, Melia stepped out from behind the building and dashed forwards. Seeing a bunch of red in the corridor to the right, she gave the order. "Now!"

She could feel a massive amount of alien energy being injected into her body. It was honestly a little bit sickening, making the world turn fuzzy and distorted, but at the same time the bullets bouncing off her shining clothes didn't hurt at all. She tried to focus on wading through the metallic wind to keep the sentry's attention.

"Get out of here!" The RED Demoman sneered as he dramatically pressed a button on a remote.

Melia suddenly felt herself flying through the air. The cause was obvious in hindsight: the enemy Spy had tricked them into thinking no stickybombs would be on the field, so she didn't even see the massive cluster under her feet. With no way to control her flight, she was propelled over the row of buildings on the right and landed front-first on the ground nearby a metal bridge between two upper decks, moments before the effects of the Übercharge dissipated.

Dizzy from both the über and the unplanned stickyjump, she stumbled to her feet and looked around the narrow corridor. It didn't seem like anyone from either team was chasing her. There were only two ways to go: forwards into unknown territory, or backwards into the heart of the enemy team.

 _Attempting to attack from behind is folly; I have no way to utilize the element of surprise adequately enough to deal with potentially nine foes. But if I am not being pursued, perhaps I can stake a claim to the final point of interest, and deal with any individuals who retreat or straggle._ Mind made up, she cautiously turned the corner.

She found herself in another corridor, with stairs on the left leading to a balcony, and another left turn at the far end. Recalling the chalkboard map, she realized that the final point, and also the rocket, would be around this final corner. But just as she was about to continue forwards, someone else came around the opposite corner.

It was another Melia. Unlike the disguised Spy from earlier, this new duplicate was perfectly accurate and was also dressed differently, wearing orange instead of lavender.

 _What is this now?_ The original Melia recalled what the Engineer had said. _"One of us comes up with a new weapon or strategy, the other copies it without much trouble."_

"You will go no further," the doppelgänger said. "You do not understand what is at stake."

"You are a fabrication!" the original responded. "You cannot be permitted to exist!"

A shootout erupted. Both Melias began summoning and firing elementals down the corridor, which collided with each other to form a brilliant light show. Bolts piereced through flares and winds, but were stymied by aquas and earths, which themselves couldn't get through the trundling ices before running out of power. Sharing the same general thought process, strategy, and unnaturally high ether synergy, neither of them could get an attack by the other's barrage. After about half a minute, they both paused, waiting for the smoke and steam to clear.

With the BLU-allied Melia considering what to do next, the one created by the RED team leaped through the cloud and initiated staff-to-staff combat. It was tentative and overall messy, what with physical offense being her least-impressive attribute, and most of it was a stalemate of misses and blocked swings. Eventually, they each scored a hit at the same time, forcing them both to retreat.

"You do realize you are an illegitimate duplicate? That you must be destroyed to preserve the balance of the world?"

"I will gladly give my life for a greater number of other lives."

The fight resumed once more, with the combatants opening up their repertoire of battle arts, but it was still very much a stalemate. Shadow Stitch covered the ground in trapping dark ether, but summoning a wind provided just enough speed to break free. Putting the opponent to sleep with Hypnotise didn't do much when the independently-aware panels of Reflection were ready to defend against cheap shots. Burst End reverberated around the corridor, but the defensive drop didn't mean much when very few attacks were landing in the first place. Eventually, they both kicked each other in the shins, causing them both to tumble to the ground.

Rolling away from each other, the fourth phase of the battle began with the original Melia raising a protective bubble of energy around herself - a trick Shulk had taught her not long ago. But the opponent caught on immediately; after a single attack bounced off the shield, she simply reached in and grabbed her by the ear, throwing her to the ground. From there, they took to the skies, jumping across the narrow hallway and throwing out both grounded and aerial attacks.

Eventually, the original Melia landed a Spear Break. Knowing that a Starlight Kick was to come, the duplicate raised her shield. Upon the kick hitting the energy bubble, it popped with a definitive shattering noise, the energy release sending the defender into a daze.

 _That's an interesting effect. I'll have to remember it._ Confident in victory, she created a bolt in the head of her staff in order to keep the one she already had, jammed it into the opponent, and detonated the elemental. The force of the attack sent the victim reeling into the top of the far wall, on the RED team's side of the corridor.

But by the time she landed on her feet, she was surrounded by the entire rest of the RED team, arriving from their respawn near the rocket.

Melia was about to retreat when she heard footsteps; the whole BLU team had arrived at her end of the corridor, pumped from successfully capturing five out of six points so far.

 _It looks like this is about to get quite messy,_ she thought as both teams deposited sentry guns and exchanged unintelligible war cries. A horn sounded; the RED Soldier raised a triangular yellow flag from his black backpack.

"Eliminate them!" the clone Melia ordered.

The RED Medic unleashed the power of his Kritzkrieg and passed it around, allowing both the Soldier and Demoman to fire devastating projectiles down the hallway. At the same time, the Sniper was clearly charging up his Machina, aiming for multiple kills with one shot.

Something clicked in Melia's head. It wasn't just the right thing to do, it was the only thing that would stop a whole lot of people from being blown up once the critical explosives reached them. And she had just enough spirit to do it. She had pretty much no friendship with anyone on the BLU team, but the affinity they had with each other should certainly be enough for it to go well.

"Follow my lead!" She jammed her staff into the floor, spreading a spiderweb of blue filaments across the ground that connected each of the team members. The incoming explosives made their mark at the same time the fully-charged rifle shot tore through, but no one even flinched, despite being left one step away from death. The Chain Attack was ready to go.

"Thunderous justice of the goddesses!" Taking her remaining bolt, Melia launched it at the enemy Heavy, causing her inner ether energy to ignite into a multicoloured aura. With the defensive buff of the opposing Battation's Backup active, he shrugged it off about as well as a melee attack. "To you, Engineer!"

"Alrighty then! Dispenser goin' up!" Expending half of his reserves, he plopped a toolbox on the ground that instantly unfolded into a level 1 dispenser, providing a regeneration effect to the entire team. "Go go go!"

 _*beep beep beep*_ The level 2 sentry that he had placed earlier eyed the Heavy and fired double-action, but he appeared to still be above his normal maximum health capacity.

 _*hmmmmmmmmm*_ The newly-erected dispenser emitted a larger package of healing towards the team's Medic, sending him from near-dead to half-alive.

"I am prepared to do vatever it takes!" Taking advantage of the support chain, the Medic played a medicating melody on his saw, instantly healing almost everyone to max health. "Spy!"

"Yeeesss!" The RED Spy on the enemy side of the field revealed himself to be the BLU Spy. "Pardon me." He eliminated the enemy Heavy in one stab, causing the entire RED team to focus on him, even though they remained unable to act. "Move!"

"Yaaaagh!" The Sniper, who had already maxed his charge gauge before the Chain Attack started, aimed for the enemy Medic. Normally the active Battalion's Backup would have neutralized the damage enough to keep the doctor alive, but the damage chain active from the Spy's backstab was strong enough to kill him anyway. "Tagged ya! Let's go, ya twitchy hooligan!"

"Alright, yeah." Lobbing a baseball into the air, the Scout cracked it with his bat and nailed the enemy Soldier in the head, instantly dazing him and disabling his defensive buff. "Nice catch, dummy! Let's get 'em!"

"Da. Raaaaaaaaah!" Already fully spun up, the Heavy spun around to spray bullets in all directions, revealing the location of the cloaked enemy Spy. "We are not done with you yet."

"Aye!" _*burp*_ Targetting the location of the flickering cloak, the Demoman nailed him with a direct grenade, destroying him instantly. "You're all bloody dead!"

"Oh yeah!" The Soldier activated his own banner with a blast of his horn, allowing the chain to continue regardless of the type of move used next. "At-ten-hut!"

"Uh-huh." The only one left to act, the Pyro gathered his fire energy and launched a Hadoken, which incinerated the enemy Soldier on contact and set everyone nearby on fire. "Hudda hudda huh!"

Melia was stunned that not only had the Chain Attack circled all the way back to her, but that the exact sequence used resulted in her being given the opportunity to unleash an ether-type art at maximum chain multiplier. It was not a difficult decision.

"Opposing me was your final mistake!" She thrusted her palm at the enemy team, unloading an incredible amount of energy down the corridor. She didn't need to see the results to know that it was an unsurvivable attack.

With no more foes left to oppose them, the BLU team victoriously stormed down the corridor and across the concrete bridge over the ravine to the final control point, capturing it almost instantly. High on success, they all started doing the conga.

Melia followed slowly, stopping to observe the carnage she had unleashed on the RED team. Most of the enemy had been simply vapourized by the Mind Blast, only their weapons left. But the duplicate Melia remained, still possessing her cloned staff and necklace, facedown and unmoving, with no signs of life but no proof of death either.

A mysterious woman's voice burst forth from an unidentified source. "Excellent work, BLU team. Your brutal efficiency is impressive. I shall see to it that you receive a bonus. All that's left is to launch the rocket, and the mission will be complete."

Almost immediately, a helicopter flew overhead and dropped a wooden crate, which landed on the concrete bridge and popped open. The BLU team instantly started lining up to take a reward from it. The Scout went first and replaced his trilby with a newsboy cap. Next was the Pyro, who took a fireman's helmet and squeezed it on overtop the glove already on his head. The Medic selected a tyrolean with a feather in the band. The Heavy took out a dark, pinstriped cap. The Engineer replaced his helmet with a white cowboy hat. The Sniper acquired a straw boater. The Soldier threw his helmet into the gorge and put on a peaked military cap. The Demoman donned a tam o'shanter. Finally, the Spy decloaked wearing a new winter jacket.

"Men, this day will go down in history as our finest hour," the Soldier declared. "Let's get this rocket the hell out of here!"

The team raised a cheer and headed inside the building. It didn't take long to find the launch controls.

"Alrighty then, let's have a look-see here." The Engineer sat down, cracked his fingers, and within a few minutes had the launch sequence ready to go. "All's I need now are the co-ordinates."

The Spy extracted a dossier from his coat and passed on a paper from it. "Here."

"Perf-wait, hang on a sec." He scratched behind his ear as he read the numbers. "This don't look right. You sure this is for that empty salt flat?"

"I'm afraid not." The Spy tapped his cigarette. "Ze target has changed, ordered straight from ze top. It iz now aimed at another one of RED's strongholds."

"Sweet land of liberty!" the Soldier exclaimed. "To take out two of RED's bases in one day is a brilliant stroke of planning! Get whoever thought that up a cigar! Not my cigar. This one is mine."

The Engineer shrugged. "Well, if that's what's that, who am I to be contrary?" He input the co-ordinates and initiated the launch.

* * *

Melia didn't mind being left out of whatever celebrations the BLU team was most certainly having. Sure, they won, and she could go home now, but it didn't feel all that much like a victory. The RED team would be back somewhere else and the fight would begin once more, with no end in sight.

She couldn't resist having a peek in the crate of hats though. She didn't quite get why these grown mercenary men were so obsessed with fashion, but if there was anything left over that seemed decent enough, she could take it as a memento of her unexpected journey.

Clumsily bending over to reach the only hat left in the box, she eventually grabbed it and stood back up. It was a tea hat, with six roses on the band. It certainly didn't seem like something that anyone she had met today would be interested in. She guessed that whoever had delivered the crate noticed that she was present, and added a more feminine reward to the box. Placing the hat on her head, she was about to turn around and head back to the teleporter in the BLU respawn room.

Suddenly, her vision was filled with a blinding white light.

_An old man sat at a desk. He was exceptionally aged, well past the point where he should have died already, but he remained alive. He sat in what appeared to be an old rundown mansion, full of red and brown decor, with a giant machine inset into one of the walls. A dozen servants milled about._

_The outside of the mansion was now visible. A giant "R" emblazoned onto a large window was the centerpiece. The land was arid yet grassy._

_While it remained daytime, an approaching light was visible over the horizon. It was the rocket. It was closing distance at remarkable speed, and in no time, it crashed directly into the mansion and exploded, leaving a blinding light._

The vision faded. Melia found herself sitting on the ground, having fallen over with the unexpected disconnection of her senses.

 _What...what did I just..._ She looked down at the newly-darkened Vision Gem on her necklace. _So...this rocket is about to...that can't have been a military installation? Were those civilians?_

The rocket, still perched on its launch rails, started hissing and emitting steam.

A massive amount of conflicting thoughts competed for space in Melia's mind. She felt responsible for helping the BLU team take the rocket and launch it at the innocent people she had just envisioned, but at the same time the RED team probably would have done very similar if they had won the skirmish.

 _I have to stop it,_ she decided. _Destroy it before it can launch. But how? I'd have to get right up on it and-_

There was suddenly a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around to see the clone Melia, as equally distraught as her, with her pendant also no longer glowing.

"I know what must be done."

The pair looked at each other for a moment as the rocket began to expel smoke.

The orange-garbed one moved first, taking shelter inside the emptied crate. "I will need to engauge the enemy sentry gun," she said.

The original Melia looked over towards the buildings near the rocket; the Engineer had moved his sentry up to guard them and upgraded it to level 3, but it was currently in sleep mode.

"You are aware this is almost certainly a suicide mission?"

A scoff. "You said it yourself earlier, that I am not supposed to exist. Is this not the most fitting way to go about it?"

The rocket ignited, spewing flame out of its nozzles.

Out of time to discuss, Melia fired a bolt at the inactive sentry. Rustled out of its slumber, it detected the orange Melia's headdress and fired its rockets, launching the crate she was in towards the slowly-moving rocket, allowing her to grab onto its exterior. The crate fell away as she clambered up the accelerating rocket's surface, searching for a weak point.

Once the rocket cleared the buildings and slowly began to turn away from vertical, she found a hatch and pried it open with her staff, revealing a dense network of electrical components. It was far too low-tech for her to comprehend, but it looked like a very good place to focus her attack.

Raising her staff into the air, she summoned three bolts and jammed them into the rocket as hard as she could.

The rocket exploded into a massive fireball, casting intense shadows across the sunny landscape. Moments later, the shockwave roared over, blowing a huge gust of wind over everything.

Melia stared up into the slowly-dissipating cloud of smoke with mixed feelings, relieved that the problem had effectively solved itself, but still anxious at how it happened.

"What the hell's going on out here?!" The Soldier burst out of the building and looked up. "Damn it, the rocket blew up! It didn't even get anywhere!"

The Engineer followed, trying to calm down his teammate. "Woah there, soldier boy. It's a shame, sure, but we still took out one o' them RED bases in record time. Still a good day's work."

"Rrrrrnnngh." The outspoken one grumbled and stepped back inside.

Shaking his head, the Engineer patted his sentry and walked out to meet Melia. "I ain't gonna ask if you had a hand in that malfunction, I don't care in the least. But here." He handed her a comically large gift-wrapped box. "I don't got a clue what this is; we found it in the control room. Probably belonged to one of the REDs. If you don't want it, I'm sure one of us will take it."

Melia cautiously removed the top of the box to find a sealed can of orange paint, labeled "Mann Co. Orange". The back of the label claimed that "Just one coat of this 100% Mann Co.-approved paint-like substance will apply a permanent* color to any of your favorite** cosmetic items. *Can be reversed with Mann Co. Paint Remover, see nearest Mann Co. depot for details. Not available in all regions, _especially_ Vermont. **Some restrictions apply. If this paint doesn't take on your item, you can take it up with ME, SAXTON HALE, AND I WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH MY BARE DAMN HANDS.".

"Ah, orange paint," the Engineer confirmed. "That oughta look good on that hat you've got, if you choose to keep it that is."

Melia didn't hesitate. She pried the lid of the can off and dunked her new hat inside. After letting it sit for a few seconds, she took it back out of the now-empty can, completely dry and the same shade of orange as her sacrificial doppelgänger.

The Engineer nodded. "Well, I reckon you want to get back to your world. Thanks for your help, ma'am."

"I likewise appreciate your help, but if I may be frank, I would prefer to never see you again."

"Can't disagree with that. Some universes just shouldn't be mixed, an' I hope they stay apart. All's it did today was complicate things. But have a good one, will ya?"

"I shall. Farewell."

Melia turned and walked back to the teleporter that would send her back where she belonged, hopefully removing the last trace of connection between the two worlds.


End file.
